When the first half of the Beamer-Spanaway Lake game came to an end, parents and student wandered the Memorial Field concourse in a daze, all asking the same question: “Who is this Colin McKay?”

By the time the clock ran out on the Titans’ 35-6 win over the Sentinels on Thursday, the first-year junior went from an unknown to an oft-repeated name as he led Beamer with 85 yards rushing and three touchdowns in the win.

McKay is the nephew of Titans head coach Darren McKay. Colin transferred to Beamer in 2015, but because of the national transfer rule, he was forced to sit out last season.

“He’s the fastest guy on this team,” Darren McKay said of Colin prior to the season. “He’s vying for a running back spot, but he’s our slot guy for now.”

At the time, the coach didn’t mention his nephew would return punts for the Titans, but his first as a Titan will be remembered for quite some time.

In the opening minutes of the first quarter, Colin McKay fielded a Spanaway Lake punt from the left hash of the 12 yard line. In short order, he took the ball 88 yards into the Sentinel end zone for a touchdown.

But the euphoric tide that had consumed the Titan crowd was quickly deflated as McKay’s breakout moment was called back for an illegal block in the back.

“I don’t even remember,” Colin said of the return. “I just wanted to catch the ball and outrun everyone. We have a good team up front, so I knew we could make something happen.”

The flag was one of multiple costly mistakes preventing Beamer from putting Spanaway Lake away early. The Titans racked up four first-quarter penalties and seven in the first half.

But with 1 minute, 27 seconds left in the first quarter, McKay got another opportunity to make a first impression. This time, it went over a complete success.

McKay took a handoff from quarterback Desmond Nelton for a 36-yard gain, planting the Titans on the Sentinel’s 11 yard line, and And Billy Vann finished off the drive with the touchdown run giving Beamer the 7-0 lead.

“Our line played really well tonight,” Colin said. “They made some big holes and was just able to score.”

In addition to the seven penalties, Beamer struggled with a couple mental mistakes: an interception and a ball touched on a loose punt resulted in turnovers.

But despite inclement weather and the errors, the Titans held on to a 14-0 lead at halftime.

McKay said his team’s performance through the first 24 minutes was uncharacteristic but was something to be expected in the first game of the season.

“We were sloppy early on,” McKay said. “We had those two turnovers, penalties; we had that return that was called back. Those are things that happen in the first game, but we did get it going.”

McKay said he didn’t give a rousing halftime speech. He didn’t have to.

Instead, he and the coaches rolled out the film. It’s what they had to do, he said. The penalties called for teaching moments, not a motivational pep talk.

The film session worked, and it was Colin McKay who led by example.

After a scoreless third quarter, Colin opened the fourth with a 20-yard touchdown run. The ball was back in Colin’s hands less than two minutes later as Beamer safety Jayshayn Ware picked off Spanaway quarterback Rock Gray.

The inception led to a 28-yard touchdown pass from Nelton to McKay. Not only did it give the Titans the 28-0 lead, but it was just the third pass of the game for the Beamer quarterback.

After Spanaway’s eight-yard touchdown run with 4:58 left in the game, Nelton placed the ball in the safest place possible — the hands of Colin McKay. The player forced off the field for a year capped his memorable night with his third and final score, a left, outside run on the goal line with 34 seconds remaining.

“It’s just such a good atmosphere,” Colin said. “We knew the adrenaline would be high; you just can’t prepare for that. Once we got past that, we just played like we knew how to play.”

It was a historic night for both McKays on the Beamer sideline. Colin became an instant contender for the starting running back position in his first-ever game with Beamer, and Darren coached the Titans to their first week one victory since the 2010-11 season.

“Every spring we have our first meeting with bullet points on the board, and that’s always No.1,” Darren said. “We haven’t won an opener since I’ve been here. People who have been here since the school opened, they can’t remember. Sloppy early on, but this is a good start.”

Prior to the end of Thursday’s game, those who know Todd Beamer football did not know Colin McKay. They also knew week one was going to be a losing week.

Afterwards, though, they all knew about the young McKay, and most had a restored faith in the coach McKay.

“Playing for him is harder than you think,” Colin said of Darren. “Like, I know I’m going to hear about a missed block more than someone else will. But he’s hard on all of us because he wants us to be our best at all times. I think we showed that tonight.”